Keys for Valentine’s Day. UnlockedThe Surprise. Amazing!
At this time of year, the air is charged with love and romance; gifts are sent to secret admirers, and presents are exchanged by partners to show how much they appreciate each other. One man, though, made it his mission to create something extra special for his paramour.
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This beautiful wooden container was a Valentine’s Day gift from craftsman and Reddit user curtisabrina to his girlfriend. The touching Greek inscription carved onto the lid translated thus: “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
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Spinning the wooden heart on the lid unlocked the box, which opened to reveal two stunning machine-made brass keys. “The imagery was that the larger key was to represent me and the smaller to represent her (it was prettier),” curtisabrina wrote in a post.
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The two keys, while lovely as single pieces, were ingeniously designed to combine into one. It was a touching metaphor for how well the craftsman thought the couple fitted together – and made a charming Valentine’s Day gift. The recipient must have been delighted with it.
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But the story doesn’t end there. Several months later, the Valentine’s Day present took on a whole new dimension. The craftsman presented his girlfriend with a gorgeous jewelry box which he had made. The container was a sleek wooden masterpiece with an aluminum pinstripe around its edge.
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Presented as it was, the beautiful, custom-made box would have been a thoughtful gift for anyone to give to their girlfriend. But there was much more to this gift than met the eye. Something amazing was hidden inside.
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Lifting off the top layer inside the box revealed a stunning secret compartment. A series of complicated-looking polished metal gears were set into the base of the box. They had a certain mechanical beauty about them, but what on Earth did they do?
It was now clear that more than highly adept but old-fashioned woodworking had gone into the production of this intriguing box. Designing the gears within the gift had been undertaken with computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software that allows the user to construct objects using 3D models.
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The whole of the box – from the wooden exterior to the complicated mechanism inside – had been expertly crafted, and curtisabrina spent many hours on its construction. All in all, the project took somewhere in the region of 236 solid hours to complete, he estimated.
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That’s a lot of time – and a lot of love – to put into a jewelry box. The talented curtisabrina was, though, aided in his labor of love by a Multicam 3000 cutting machine. “Many long hours were spent with this machine. Enough to make [my girlfriend] a little jealous,” he later joked. But what was the box’s purpose – and what did it have to do with those keys he gave his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day all those months ago?
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Although those exquisite interlocking brass keys were beautiful gifts on their own, their true purpose suddenly became clear when the hidden panel inside the jewelry box was revealed. Inset into one of the gears was a keyhole. And that keyhole just happened to be a perfect match for the keys when they were combined.
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When turned, the keys activated the system of gears, setting the whole mechanism in motion. Its creator refers to the largest gear as the “iris blade” owing to the flower-like shape and the bladed panel construction. This opened up to reveal another secret.
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Behind the iris blade was a recess, designed to house the ultimate prize in the container. Months in the making, the amazingly complex design of the keys and box just kept building up the suspense.
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The first version of the box was broken during construction, so curtisabrina had to start again. Creating this magical work of art was a painstaking process, but the finished article must have been hugely satisfying for its maker to behold – especially when its secret purpose was finally revealed to his girlfriend, after all those months.
The ultimate surprise, however, was what lay behind the mechanical iris. The hollow in the center held the box for curtisabrina’s real gift to his girlfriend – an engagement ring! Months in the making, the keys and stunning jewelry box turned out to be a hugely elaborate way for him to propose.
The ring hidden in the heart of the wonderful box, made with so much care and love, was a lovely piece of jewelry with a solitaire Canadian diamond mounted on the top. It must have been a beautiful sight for curtisabrina’s girlfriend as it emerged from behind the opening mechanical iris.
The elegant engagement ring was set in yet another handcrafted wooden box that lay in the middle of the iris. Moreover, in keeping with all the other elements of this incredible proposal, the round ring box was also exquisitely crafted, with a heart shape cut into the middle.
Engraved onto the surface of the box was a simple message. “All my love,” it read. And considering all the effort and planning that was poured into this creation, there could be no doubting the sincerity of this sentiment.
With the final secret of the keys and jewelry box revealed, there was only one remaining question that needed to be answered. After all the design and hard work that curtisabrina lavished on his amazingly thoughtful and lovingly crafted proposal, what would his girlfriend’s answer be?
It was, of course, a resounding “yes” – though how could it have been anything else after all that? The happy couple were engaged, and not only did they have a lovely, unique jewelry box full of surprises to show for it, but they also had a wonderful, romantic story to tell.